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The New Green Scare

A little historical back drop for you. Back in 1947, Ronald Reagan, President of the Screen Actors Guild was called to give testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee on communist activities within SAG. A quote from Reagan is important to be reminded of today regarding Microsoft Vista/IE 7(stay with me)..

In opposing those people (communists), the best thing to do is make
democracy work.
In the Screen Actors Guild we make it work by insuring everyone a vote
and by keeping everyone informed. I believe that, as Thomas Jefferson
put it, if all the American people know all of the facts they will
never make a mistake. Whether the party
should be outlawed, that is a matter for the government to decide. As a
citizen, I would hesitate to see any political party outlawed on the
basis of its political ideology. However, if it is proven that an
organization is an agent of foreign power, or in any way not a
legitimate political party -- and I think the government is capable of
proving that -- then that is another matter.

Back to the present keeping in mind that phishers=communists and Microsoft=HUAC. According to the article in the December 19th edition of the WSJ called Software to Spot Phishers Irks Small Concerns Microsoft seems to start a new Green Scare. In this case Microsoft is trying to be the judge, jury, and
executioner of what is a legitimate site or not without the whole picture (opposite of Reagan's quote - "if people know all the facts, they will never make a mistake".) Unfortunately, according to Microsoft they won't know all the facts. What that means is that if you don't have a green bar you could be avoided. How do you get a green bar? I don't know, ask Microsoft but if you are a small business and not an LLC, partnership, or S/C corp you will not be in the green zone for a while (according to the video link found on the article, maybe 6 months). And, when you couple this with phishing filter you could end up worse off with a yellow bar.

Sure Microsoft says this is all in the name of protecting consumers from terrible phish sites, but how about the legitimate small business trying to make a buck on the internet? What happens to them? Don't they get to participate in the Long Tail? This certainly puts a burden on small business, but boosts big e-Commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.

Seriously. What do you think? Is it fair to hammer small business in the name of protecting you from phishing? How about Microsoft setting themselves up as the final arbiter of what is a legitimate site without complete information. I think I can guess what Reagan would have said on this issue...

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

***********UPDATE 12-27**************************

Well, just when I rip on my own post for not getting any love over at Marketing Profs (I think it just has to do with timing), I receive a nice link from The Street.com. Thanks James!! As some of you readers know, I've always been a fan of The Street.com and my Mother might be Jim Cramer's biggest fan.

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